Beginnings
by Sultry Sweet
Summary: Follows the events of "Choices". The third installment in the trilogy based around 4x07 and 4x08. Ingrid still hasn't been taken care of and all Emma and Regina want to do is get started on seeing where their new relationship will take them.


**A/N: Phew. Finally managed to finish this. So sorry for the long wait. Hopefully it's not a disappointment after all this time. I'm also going to mention that I proof read the first half of this months ago and didn't bother to proof read it again before posting so I'm also hoping there aren't too many errors.**

** Let me know what you think. :)**

* * *

They'd been in a secluded part of the park for Emma's first magic lesson since the Snow Queen had made her presence known. Mostly because it was open space, which Regina knew Emma needed, and it also wasn't a bridge. Emma had insisted they never have another magic lesson on a bridge. She'd been emotionally scarred from the first lesson on one and not long after, she was face to face with an ice bridge Regina wasn't at all hesitant to cross. Then the Snow Queen started a wind storm and suddenly the bridge cracked and started to fall apart while they were stuck directly in the middle of the icy structure. Two near plunges toward death was enough for the blonde and Regina was inclined to agree.

Although, the magic lesson had almost been anything but a lesson because every time Emma tried to call her magic to the surface, she was distracted by all the things that could have been happening between them instead. It appeared that Emma may have regained some magical control, but lost her physical control in the process. Before they'd even reached the point of conversation about what to do with the Snow Queen once they caught her—because by then they hadn't quite neutralized that threat as well as they'd have liked—Emma had managed to touch Regina's elbow, graze Regina's hand, stare just a little too long at Regina's face and chest, and skim her fingers against Regina's hip.

When it seemed Emma's sly touching had stopped, the younger woman took Regina by surprise with an unexpected pat to the ass.

"It was an accident," Emma claimed when Regina shot her a look.

"I thought we'd moved past accidents, dear," Regina replied.

Emma only grinned in response.

Regina laughed.

"Well then, here's something done on purpose," Regina said before she flicked her wrist and started to throw fireball after fireball at Emma.

"Hey, whoa, what," Emma asked as she frantically dodged every fireball until she tripped and fell onto the grass.

A puff of smoke transported Regina from her place a few feet away from the other woman to directly on top of her on the ground.

Emma gasped when she felt as well as saw Regina above her.

"How's that for an 'accident'," Regina smirked.

Emma licked her lips and lowered her gaze from Regina's darkened eyes to her alluring red lips.

"It's good," Emma said. "But I know one 'accident' it can't beat."

Emma surged forward and captured Regina's lips. She reached up and grasped at the back of Regina's neck with one hand.

Regina leaned in as Emma's hand on her neck brought her down toward the blonde and she melted into the kiss. She hummed her content, which soon turned into a moan when Emma rolled her hips into Regina and squirmed beneath her for more contact. It took a lot of self-control, but after a few seconds Regina broke the kiss and pulled back so Emma would have to reach up for another kiss and give Regina plenty of time to stop it.

"In the park? That's not very elegant," Regina said with a small smile. "Especially since we started all of this with sex in your _car_."

"You bring out the exhibitionist in me," Emma flirtatiously beamed up at the brunette.

"You promised me next time would be in a bed. _My _bed."

"Then poof us there."

"We just had sex."

"A _week _ago."

"And we haven't even had a date yet," Regina said a little playfully, but there was another emotion that briefly passed across her face that Emma almost missed. Almost.

Emma frowned.

"Wait, you don't think… Regina, I will take you to the nicest restaurant in town and we can go for a walk on the beach when the sun goes down or we can just sit in your vault since that's where you like to be lately. Sex doesn't even have to be the end result tonight. Say the word and we'll go on a date right now."

"Emma, it's barely three in the afternoon. And you've hardly done anything during this lesson."

"So? I want you to know that this thing between us isn't just physical. Not for me." Emma sighed and then she confidently continued. "Regina Mills, will you go out on a date with me?"

Regina smugly smiled and shook her head out of amusement.

Emma beamed out of pure happiness, nothing flirtatious about it, and ran her hands up and down Regina's sides while they remained pressed against each other on the grass.

"Yes, Emma. I will go on a date with you."

Emma moved toward Regina and tried to kiss her, but Regina pulled back.

"Later. We really need to work on your magic if we plan on stopping the Snow Queen soon."

Emma pouted.

"That's not fun."

"No, but it's what we have to do. It's who we are. Well, who _you _have always been and who I _recently _decided to be."

Emma rolled her eyes with a smile and moved too quickly for Regina to pull back a second time. Emma kissed her sweetly and then a little more languidly before she ended the kiss and laid back in the grass for another moment.

Regina slowly pushed off of Emma and then held out a hand to the blonde who hesitated while she lovingly gazed up at her from the ground. A moment later, after a contented sigh, Emma accepted her hand and Regina helped her to her feet.

"Despite all the fun we _could _have," Regina started, "we should discuss what to do with the Snow Queen."

Emma sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I guess this lesson is over."

"It doesn't have to be. Multi-task. We just need to figure out the best course of action from here. As long as the Snow Queen is out there, regardless of how close she wants to get to you, she's still a threat."

"I know. I…I really don't know what to do. Part of me just wants her gone by any means necessary and another part of me knows I have to find another way to deal with her."

"Then let's focus on that," Regina suggested and took Emma's hand.

She led the blonde over to a nearby bench positioned under a tree and they sat next to each other with limited space between them.

"I'd say, like any of the villains we've faced, her magic is our main concern. We already know what she wants."

"Me and Elsa."

Regina nodded.

"Now the question is, what is she going to do to get to you two," Regina formed the question as a statement.

Emma frowned and stared down at her lap. She picked at her cuticles and after a moment wrung her left hand over her right wrist.

Regina scooted closer to Emma on the bench and rested a hand on the other woman's knee.

"She was one of my foster moms," Emma said.

It was information Regina, and most of the town, already knew, but there was more to what Emma had to say. Though even if they hadn't slept together, Regina still would have known that Emma had more to say.

"I don't remember, but there's proof. I…loved her. I never loved any of the people I stayed with."

"She took your memory," Regina carefully supplied.

"Why? It doesn't make sense. If I actually _loved _her, cared enough about her to share letters and birthday cards signing my name to a sentiment like that, why make me forget?"

"Well, as someone who's used a few memory spells in the past, I'd guess something happened."

"I think that's obvious, Regina," Emma rolled her eyes.

Regina remained calm and patient then continued.

"Something that either changed your opinion about her or how she felt about you. Though, since the memory spell was cast on you, I'd say the first is more likely."

Emma furrowed her brows and looked up at Regina.

"You think she made me forget about her because I stopped caring about her?"

Regina nodded.

"And perhaps you recognized her in the ice cream shop your first year here. You said you didn't even remember that encounter."

"But…if I did recognize her then, how did she use the spell? She'd have to have magic. There wasn't any during the first curse."

"Well, not a _lot _of magic," Regina corrected. "I still had some and the only way I could use it is because Storybrooke was built on the magic from the Enchanted Forest. It was dormant until Rumple used the true love potion to bring it to the surface."

"So she would have had to have brought it over with her like you brought over yours?"

"That's the only way she could have pulled off a memory spell during the curse."

"So I recognized her, probably didn't like that she was in town, and then she wiped my memory?"

Regina felt Emma's skin warm beneath her touch through tight, dark-washed denim. She looked down and saw Emma's hands emit a faint red glow. She took a deep breath then moved her hand from Emma's knee to the wrist that Emma had in her own grasp. She slid her fingers over her wrist then took Emma's right hand in her left.

"Oh. Sorry," Emma said when she realized her magic had started to act up. "I thought I had better control."

"You do. Before, you would have probably shot it out of your hands like a weapon. Right now you're just itching with it because of what we're talking about. Don't worry. That'll be managed with a few more lessons. It's all a process. Don't forget that."

"Right," Emma nodded and laced her fingers with Regina's before she got back to the previous subject of conversation. "Uh, Ingrid got me to open up to her and then something changed between us and then I was on the streets for the next year or so before I met Neal."

"Maybe that's why you ran."

"If it was, I _definitely_ wouldn't have been happy to see her here. Okay, so what do we know? Ingrid was my foster mom for some time, I was happy to have her in my life, she claims I'm supposed to be her prophesized sister to complete her power circle or whatever, and she needs me and Elsa so she can have the family she lost? I don't see how any of that could help us figure out a way to stop her."

Regina shook her head.

"How many times do you have to hear that magic is emotion before you get it? She's using magic to manipulate you and Elsa to come to her. She doesn't push you."

"That's debatable."

"She hasn't forced you to like her."

"Magic can't force someone to love you."

Regina let out a frustrated sigh and shot Emma a look that the blonde quickly understood had meant she needed to let Regina finish her thought or otherwise face the consequences.

"She wants you to come to her and then I don't know what she'll do, but she'll have to complete the circle somehow. I assume it will require your love and Elsa's, but I'm not sure how it'll tie together."

"Maybe there's something in your spell books about love binding?"

Regina chuckled, "Those would produce interesting results not relevant to the current situation."

Emma's eyebrow shot toward her hairline and Regina almost said, "I'll show you some things later" until realization dawned on the brunette.

"She might have an object—or objects since she needs you _and _Elsa—that will bind the three of you together. If her love is strong enough, it might be what fuels the bindings."

"Wait, are you saying she might _cuff us _or something?"

"Or something. I sincerely doubt a woman like her would use handcuffs. Besides, it would have to be something from her world, something significant to her."

"Great," Emma dryly said. "So we have to find that thing and destroy it? That'll be easy."

Regina sighed while she shook her head again.

"No. As long as she doesn't use whatever it is she has to bind you, you'll be safe. All we have to do is find a way to contain her and her magic."

"That hasn't worked in our favor so far."

"Because we haven't baited her yet."

"You better not be suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

Regina smiled and leaned in. She sweetly kissed the blonde's lips and lingered for a moment. Before she was able to pull away completely, Emma grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her back in for a stronger, more passionate kiss. She smiled into the first kiss initiated by Emma then fell into it with as much passion and love as Emma had infused with the firm but gentle physical connection.

Emma squeezed their joined hands and Regina hummed before she pushed forward and pinned Emma against the seatback of the bench. She swung a leg over one of Emma's and positioned her knee between the other woman's thighs, but she didn't quite straddle her leg.

Regina released Emma's hand and touched the side of Emma's face with the hand she'd earlier freed from the blonde's grasp. She trailed her fingertips over Emma's cheek, down to below her ear, along her jawline to her chin, and finally settled her palm against Emma's sternum.

Emma grabbed under Regina's right knee and pulled her leg over her lap. Regina maneuvered herself to make herself more comfortable in a position Emma apparently preferred with her knees on either side of Emma's hips.

Regina straddled Emma's lap and contentedly sighed when Emma's fingers grazed up her sides and under her shirt. She then slid her hand on Emma's sternum a little lower and almost had a handful of one of Emma's breasts when she remembered herself and their surroundings.

A shift in the woods behind the bench, the sound of movement within them, attracted some of Regina's attention. While she didn't stop her descent to touch a part of Emma's chest, she slowed her actions and opened her eyes. She looked straight ahead to see a figure dressed in white pressed against a tree. The Snow Queen settled herself behind one of the trees in the woods, but allowed half of her body to be visible. The woman wasn't trying to hide.

Regina lifted herself a little off Emma's lap to break their kiss and she looked over the top of Emma's head to stare more obviously at the blonde behind the tree.

Emma didn't seem to care that Regina had ended their kiss because less than a second after the contact was broken, the younger woman directed her kisses to Regina's neck.

Regina swallowed a moan when Emma found the perfect spot on her neck and gently raked her nails back down her sides and stomach. She pushed herself toward Emma, her eyes unfortunately still on the Snow Queen, and arched her back to feel more of the dear Savior's touch.

The Snow Queen looked at Regina like the ice-wielding woman knew everything about her. Ingrid was the woman's given name, Regina's mind supplied from a memory of one of the time's she'd read the woman's nametag in the ice cream shop on a day she'd indulged Henry with a quart of his favorite flavor. Ingrid watched her with Emma with a neutral expression. The other blonde almost seemed unaffected by their display on the bench, but after a moment her eyes narrowed the slightest bit and her lips curled into a half-smirk, half-snarl. Regina recognized it from the mirror. She'd worn a similar expression many times as the Evil Queen and more than a few times as the angered Mayor, before the trigger, before Neverland, before Emma admitted she wanted to be friends and thought they were special.

"Emma," Regina quietly said in the younger woman's ear and looked away from Ingrid.

She was rewarded with a hand in her pants and lusty kisses against her chest from Emma. She closed her eyes and moaned in Emma's ear, quiet but not silent or stifled. When she opened her eyes, she looked into the woods again and saw Ingrid claw at the bark of the tree the woman had moved out from behind and stood beside instead, a step away from passing the tree entirely. She'd moved closer when Emma had elicited a moan from her. Intriguing. The Snow Queen—Ingrid—also looked more disheartened than angry as she continued to watch.

Though it proved allowing the Snow Queen to watch them on the bench had its advantages, like learning what made the woman tick, Regina refused to put on a show of her and Emma's most intimate moments for anyone. She formed a fireball in her free hand between her body and Emma's and swung her arm out to the side, as not to burn Emma, then flung it at Ingrid.

The motion caught Emma's attention and she pulled back from the focus she'd given Regina's neck and more recently her chest.

Regina felt Emma stop, the other woman's hand stilled inside her pants, but kept her eyes on her fireball as it hit the tree behind where Ingrid once stood. The Snow Queen had vanished from sight and it was all Regina had wanted for the moment. They still hadn't come up with a way to trap the other blonde so an attack was futile even though they'd had the woman close enough to converse with only moments ago.

"Regina? Is everything okay," Emma asked.

She looked down to see Emma's concerned gaze trained on her. She smiled down at Emma and removed her hand from Emma's chest to run it through slightly messy blonde hair.

"Yes, sorry. I thought I saw someone."

"Thought or actually saw someone?"

Regina stared silently into Emma's eyes and knew that if they were going to share more than a night together, which the kiss outside of Emma's apartment door a few days prior confirmed, she couldn't lie to Emma. Plus, even if she did lie to her, Emma claimed to always know when she was lying and she didn't want to give Emma a reason to doubt any of the progress they'd made during the Snow Queen's villainous reign over the town.

"Actually saw someone. The Snow Queen. She was watching us."

"What," Emma asked as she jumped beneath Regina and attempted to turn her body enough to look behind her and into the woods.

Regina almost fell back, off Emma's lap and onto the concrete trail that looped through the park as a result of the younger woman's reaction.

"She's gone. I threw a fireball at her and she left before it hit her."

"Was the fireball meant to kill her?"

"No. I expected her to poof away before it hit her. Not just because it's smart to hold off on an attack until we know how we want to proceed with her, but because you _did _love her even if you can't remember it. I won't kill her unless you want her dead. I know what it's like to lose those you love, even if they've done nothing to deserve your love."

Emma winced.

"If you're about to apologize for my mother's death when you had nothing to do with it I will leave you on this bench and be anywhere else," Regina replied to Emma's look.

"I wasn't. I mean, I kind of was, but only because as messed up as all of it was there apparently was a way to keep her from being so cruel. If my mom hadn't poisoned her heart, she could have _had _her heart and then she could've apologized to you and you could've had a mom that loved you and not a mom that just loved the life she carved out for you."

"Yes, well, it happened. She did sort of apologize at least. So _I _won't be the one to kill Ingrid unless you say so."

"Ingrid?"

"That's her name. Why? Do you remember something?"

Emma shook her head.

"Of course you wouldn't," Regina sighed. "It was a stupid question. You won't remember anything about her from your past unless she returns your memories."

Emma settled her hands on Regina's hips and sighed, "We really should find a way to deal with her."

"I thought we'd already had part of a plan," Regina said.

"No, _you _were about to suggest using me as bait."

"Can you blame me? You're very attractive bait."

"Flattery will get you nowhere…right now."

"But at some point it'll get me somewhere," Regina asked with a grin.

"If the answer was anything but yes we would have never slept together," Emma answered and pulled Regina toward her.

Regina smiled and leaned down into a kiss. As their tongues slid together and apart and together again, Emma's hands migrated from her hips to her ass. She let out a surprised moan against Emma's lips when the other woman squeezed her cheeks and pulled her even closer. She broke the kiss and protested their resumed public displays of affection.

"Buy me dinner first," Regina said.

"I will if I survive my duty as bait for Dairy Queen."

"Then you have plenty of incentive to live," Regina smiled.

"And you've got plenty of incentive to cheer me on."

They chuckled together and shared a tender, blissful kiss before purple smoke surrounded them and they disappeared from the park bench.

* * *

The town would have warmed up if it weren't for the fall season and its descent into winter, but at least the ice had thawed and Elsa had helped end the Snow Queen's destruction before too much damage had incurred. The older blonde had been locked up in the Sheriff's Station with temporary magical bonds until Emma and Regina figured out a way to make the bonds a little more permanent without removing the magic completely. No one wanted her to repeat her dark performance with her magic, but to strip it from her would confirm her overly ingrained idea that those without magic, family or not, feared it and wanted to change that part of those who did wield it. Emma had struggled with the decision to allow Ingrid to keep the one thing that meant she'd always be a threat as long as she was alive and in town, but she and Regina worked out the most mutually beneficial solution during an overnight stay at the mansion following their magic lesson.

Regina was finally back at her house with a little previous goading from Emma to leave the vault and the story book behind, at least for the next few days because it was getting obsessive and though Emma didn't know much about Regina's Evil Queen days she knew the darkness that consumed her stemmed from obsession. Regina thankfully agreed to keep away from her search for the book's author for a while and Emma promised she would be rewarded for it, but she also made it clear that the reward was going to happen whether or not Regina actually put her search on hold. The only real reward about what was going to happen once the Snow Queen was dealt with would be how Emma felt about where Regina's attention was, and Regina seemed eager to keep Emma happy by avoiding the vault and the book as she'd been politely asked to do.

At the house, Regina had served Emma cocoa while she drank tea and they sat curled up next to each other on the couch and hashed out the best possible plans of capture that involved using Emma and Elsa as bait. Once they'd come up with a plan, Emma texted David that she was going to crash in Regina's guest room so she'd be well rested for their next face-off against the Snow Queen.

Truthfully, there wasn't much sleep to be had at the apartment when she'd had to share a bed with Elsa, who kicked, and a screeching baby that not only pulled her from slumber, but continued to keep her awake as her parents thudded and sighed and whisper-argued very loudly while they tried to soothe him back to sleep.

David's response to her text had been quick and understanding and she'd known he'd wished he could have been lucky enough to even sleep on Regina's couch just avoid the mess he had to deal with at the apartment.

But if David had asked and if Regina had been willing, the guest room would have been available because Emma hadn't even set foot in it that night. Instead, she'd followed Regina to the master bedroom and made herself comfortable with the other woman beneath the covers. They'd talked about Henry and what they were going to tell him once they finally sat down with him. They'd talked about what they would have said if Snow had opened the apartment door a few nights ago and found them kissing in the hall. When conversation had stopped, Regina made colorful, moving patterns on the ceiling with her magic and taught Emma how to do it with hers. Soon, they had made a multicolored constellation on the entire ceiling and just before either of them closed their eyes, Emma used what she'd learned about magic on the ceiling to spell out the words, "I'm yours" in bright red amongst twinkling white and blue and pink and green stars made of both their individual and combined magic.

Regina had smiled and waved a hand across the magical writing on the ceiling. After her hand had passed over the words from their position on the bed, Emma had seen the same words spelled out, but the color had changed to Regina's signature purple. Emma had turned onto her side to face Regina and smiled. Regina had smiled back and they'd moved in for a kiss that, for once, hadn't led to more kisses in other places.

Regina had then rolled onto her side, her back to Emma, and Emma had curled up against her back. She'd draped a hand over Regina's waist and the two of them cuddled until they'd drifted to sleep.

And just like every day in Storybrooke, the night was theirs with no worries and no immediate dangers, but the morning came and all hell broke loose.

Emma hadn't felt her phone vibrate that morning. She'd slept fitfully with Regina nestled in her arms, though their position had relaxed and shifted a bit since they'd fallen asleep. No matter how peaceful she'd been or how much she'd reveled in waking up Regina after a sex-less but still beautifully intimate night, it hadn't changed the fact that she'd had four unread text messages and six missed calls within the last hour before she'd finally opened her bleary eyes to take in the new day.

That new day had ultimately ended in the Snow Queen's capture. Emma and Elsa had gone to see her when Elsa had told Emma's parents about the ribbon she'd woken up to wrapped tightly around her wrist. Emma hadn't even noticed it until she'd called back her dad to find out what the urgency in all the texts and missed calls were about, which caused her to shake Regina awake.

Regina went to wake Henry, who'd gone to bed last night thinking his blonde mother would sleep in the guest room and not yet knowing she actually hadn't, and the three of them poofed to the cramped apartment to discuss the strange new accessories. Regina had come to the helpful conclusion that Ingrid's plan to magically bind them had been accomplished with the magic-funneling ribbons and Emma had an "ah-ha" moment when she realized Regina had a point.

"Whatever she's got planned next is probably happening soon," Emma had told everyone a moment before she and Regina explained their plan to capture Ingrid to the group gathered in the apartment.

Emma had been right, though it hadn't been a stretch to assume the Snow Queen was about to make her next move. What they'd been expecting, however, was not what Emma and Elsa had encountered.

* * *

The Snow Queen was in her ice cave with two purple rocks in her hand and was seconds from shattering a mirror she claimed would show the two of them how everyone else truly felt about them while her free hand remained at the ready to magically break glass.

"All I wanted was a family. You are the only ones who would ever understand me, which makes you the only ones who would ever love me," Ingrid said.

"If you think these ribbons are gonna make us love you, you're wrong," Emma stated.

"I don't expect them to."

"Then what's your plan? Make us see what a spell or curse or whatever is going to bring out of the townspeople," Emma asked. "They'll be under the influence of your magic, or…Nordic magic. Whatever. Either way, it won't be them. Not really."

"It's their true intentions and feelings, Emma. I thought you understood how exactly people that aren't like us see you and your magic. They saw you differently, didn't they?"

"For a _second_. And mostly because I just ran away instead of working things out like I should have done in the first place. They still love me."

"_I _love you."

"But we don't love you," Elsa spoke up.

Ingrid looked from Emma to Elsa and said, "But you did."

Emma clenched and unclenched her fists and a second later, Ingrid's eyes were back on her.

"I know it's hard for you to believe," Ingrid started to say, "but you both did love me at one time. It's why you haven't done anything to stop me, because you still feel some of your…compassion for me at the very least."

"Or maybe we're not as okay with killing you as we thought."

"Can you say the same for Regina," Ingrid asked with a raised eyebrow. "She has no problem killing those that threaten her family or those that get in her way. She's done it countless times before. And yet, she told you she wouldn't kill me unless you expressed your permission because she knows, just like deep down you also know, you did love me."

Of all the days and all the conversations and all the places in the small—yet maybe not so small—town of Storybrooke, the Snow Queen had to stick her nose in a private moment in the middle of the most vacant part of the park between her and Regina and come out with more information than Emma was willing to share with anyone other than her girlfriend. The other blonde already had Emma's memories and knew plenty about her because if she did love Ingrid at any point in time, she would have shared a lot of personal things with the woman. If Ingrid had had her love, she'd had her trust too. Ingrid was closer to Emma than Regina in that moment and she didn't even remember a single thing about Ingrid until she'd seen her as the Snow Queen trying to bind three blonde magic-wielders together as sisters at any cost.

"The key being _used to_," Emma finally argued. "No amount of magic is going to make us love you again. That's not how magic works."

"Of course not," Ingrid agreed. "I'm well aware of magic's limitations, Emma. If you have all the good memories back from when you loved me, however, you _can _love me again. You never really stopped loving me you just…don't remember ever loving me at all."

"Even if that's true," Elsa said, "we would never forgive you for hurting everyone else to make your point."

"You would once you saw how they really feel about people like us," the Snow Queen said and started to wave her hand over the mirror.

"No," Emma shouted and darted forward while magic seeped out of her hands to stop the other woman.

The Snow Queen turned around and released Emma and Elsa's memories. It stopped Emma in tracks and she closed her eyes as she felt a wave of past moments return to her. Glimpses of her sipping cocoa on the couch with Ingrid, spending the next few weeks at Ingrid's side as thick as thieves like she'd once looked with Henry before she broke the curse her first year in town, swapping beanies and trying on some of Ingrid's jackets when her sweater wasn't enough to keep her warm on a chilly day as a teen, playing arcade games on an overcast day just before Ingrid confessed she was going to adopt her and Emma said "I love you" to someone for the first time in her life. When she opened her eyes, Ingrid was in her glamorous but still ridiculous white gown and started to crack the mirror with her magic.

"Stop! Ingrid, please. Stop," she begged.

Ingrid's hand stilled in mid-air and she turned to Emma with wide and hopeful blue eyes. The more she turned to face the younger women, the lower her hand moved and the less of a threat her magic posed to the spell of Shattered Sight.

With her memories back she realized Ingrid had been right when she was younger. She had powers and she was special and Harry Potter was fiction, but her magic and her life and her family were real.

"You have to understand that I wasn't even _close _to being ready to accept all the things you told me that night you dragged me in front of that car," Emma said. "I was twenty-eight when I finally showed up here and my own _son _kept telling me about curses and an evil queen and that Snow White was my mom. He had to eat a poisoned apple turnover before I believed in any of it! But…I do now and…I also have a family now. I can't let you hurt them by turning them against each other, but I can't just get rid of you, you know? So please, _please_ don't do this to me. Because if you do, you'll lose me."

Ingrid appeared on the verge of tears. She looked at Emma for another moment before her gaze drifted to Elsa who stood wide-eyed and in agreement with Emma.

"You won't kill me," Ingrid asked.

Both Emma and Elsa shook their heads.

"But we won't be a family," Ingrid stated.

"We're already family," Elsa explained. "You're still my aunt."

"Everyone else will want me gone," Ingrid surmised.

Just then, Anna burst into the cave with a letter.

"Wait! Aunt Ingrid, whatever you're about to do, don't," Anna breathlessly said.

"Why should I listen to you," Ingrid asked with a hint of anger to her voice. "You've wanted me gone from the moment we were introduced!"

"Because I understand now. I mean, I don't understand your magic, or Elsa's, but I'm okay with it. Also, I do understand why you've been looking for them," Anna looked between Elsa and Emma. "You thought your sisters, my mom and our other aunt, didn't love you anymore because of your magic. But they did! I have proof! Well, proof that my mother still loved you and that she just didn't understand your magic, but that she should have accepted it. Here! It's all in the letter."

Anna carefully approached Ingrid and handed her the letter. Ingrid ripped it out of Anna's hands and Emma waited with Elsa and Anna with baited breath while they watched her read it. After a couple of minutes, Ingrid gasped and a few tears slid down her cheeks. She looked up from the letter at the three women that stood before her and smiled through her tears.

"You three are all so very special," Ingrid said. "I see now that I _am _a monster. Not because of my magic, but because of what I've done with it."

Emma, Elsa, and Anna all relaxed when they heard that.

"Listen, Ingrid," Emma hesitantly started to say. "We're not going to hurt you, but I think, _for now_, you should probably take it easy with the magic. We have a way of letting you keep it, but it's going to limit what you can do."

"We know you were trapped in that urn for such a long time," Elsa continued, "but we think it's best for your safety and for everyone else's peace of mind that you stay in one of the cells at the sheriff's station until we can convince everyone you won't hurt them if we let you go back to your home here. Or back to Arendelle with us if that is where you choose to be."

Anna nodded her agreement and flashed Ingrid a small smile.

"You've already found your families," Ingrid sadly said. "And they aren't with me."

"You might have terrorized everyone here," Emma started to argue, "but most of them believe in second chances. Or at least my parents do and they're the people this town looks up to so…I'm sure if you give it a little time, there's room for you here."

"Really," Ingrid disbelievingly asked with a smile as wide as her teary eyes.

"Yeah," Emma shrugged. "I'd fight to give you a second chance. Hell, I'm here to bring back the happy endings and since you're in Storybrooke, I'm pretty sure you're included in the list of people who I help get them."

Ingrid's expression melted into gratefulness and with a flick of her wrist, the yellow ribbons she'd magically placed on Elsa and Emma's wrists disappeared under a white flash of magic and reappeared in Ingrid's hand. She held out her hands as though she was waiting for handcuffs and Emma flashed a nervous smile.

She held up a finger in a silent way to tell Ingrid to wait and pulled her phone out with her other hand. She called Regina and said, "She's ready" then hung up just as Regina poofed into the room.

No words were spoken as Regina walked over to Ingrid and held her hands, palms down, over Ingrid's wrists. Regina looked up at Ingrid and told her, "It's not going to hurt, but you'll feel a little off balance for the next few days."

Regina then lightly pressed her hands to Ingrid's forearms and a purple glow spread from Regina's hands to Ingrid's arms.

Ingrid gasped and started to pant due to a sudden loss of breath, but after a moment she acclimated and looked directly at Regina. As she started to speak, Regina looked up and locked gazes with the other woman.

"No matter where I am, in Storybrooke or not," Ingrid sternly but quietly said so only the two of them heard, "if you hurt her, we're going to have a problem."

"The same goes for you," Regina just as seriously replied.

A second later, Regina released Ingrid from her grip and stepped back. Emma stepped up and gently grabbed Ingrid by the arm. Regina watched her as she made her way out of the cave with Ingrid willingly at her side and then followed behind them just a few steps ahead of Anna and Elsa, who linked arms upon their exit.

* * *

With the Snow Queen off the streets and willing to let Emma and Elsa off the hook for her sister-ribbons-magic clan, Emma was determined to make the night special. She'd had maybe three overall magic lessons, but she had a lot of power once again since it was no longer funneled into the Snow Queen. She was sure to make the night magical in every way possible, including actual magic but mostly just by being her natural, charming self.

Emma parked in front of the pathway, as usual, on the curb outside of the mansion dressed in dark jeans and a nice long-sleeved shirt. It wasn't tank top weather and she didn't want to look too casual, but she really didn't want to wear a dress. The only time she wore dresses were during attempts to catch her mark in her bounty hunter days, as a teen, and that overly princess-y dress on her date with Hook because...well, she wasn't exactly sure why she'd chosen that dress, but it seemed to be a look her parents and her then boyfriend had approved of so it wasn't necessarily a bad choice. It just wasn't her.

Regina opened the door not long after Emma rang the bell and Regina definitely saw her. She saw Emma and only Emma and she smiled. Her cheeks flushed red with a blush Emma didn't understand the root of, but she enjoyed it all the same. It was a positive reaction and it had everything to do with her so Emma was happy.

"Wow. You look… Amazing doesn't even cover it," Regina said while her eyes had yet to stop roaming over Emma's body.

"Thanks," Emma said and soon had a blush to match Regina's. "Amazing doesn't even _begin _to describe how you look either."

Regina wore a dress, a tight dress like the ones she and—on one of the few occasions previously mentioned—Emma wore. It was black with a plunging V-cut that showed off two of Regina's many assets.

"Well, we could stand here complimenting each other all night or you could come inside."

Emma's eyes snapped up from Regina's legs and momentarily caught on Regina's chest before she looked her in the eyes again.

"Oh, I…kind of thought we were going out," Emma said with slightly widened eyes, worried she'd misunderstood what Regina wanted out of their first date and wanting nothing more than to make it perfect and memorable for Regina. "I made reservations and everything."

"You did?"

Emma nodded and smiled.

"Come on. It'll be good," Emma assured her and took Regina's hand.

Regina grabbed her purse and keys and slowly stepped out onto the porch, her hand still in Emma's, and locked up behind them before Emma led her to the Bug.

"Did you clean up," Regina asked as Emma opened the passenger door for her.

Emma smirked.

"Your dress will be fine and you can otherwise relax. I wiped everything down. But I have no problem making it dirty again."

She winked and Regina playfully shoved her shoulder. Emma chuckled while Regina slid into the car before she closed the door as soon as the brunette was seated, her legs and feet safely inside. She walked around the front of the Bug and after she got in, she looked over at Regina and smiled.

"Ready?"

"Take me on a date," Regina answered with a smile.

* * *

The lights were low and the restaurant was almost vacant. There were some people scattered throughout the place at the surrounding tables, but it seemed like Emma and Regina were the only two there.

While they ate, Emma got a little sauce on her chin and Regina reached over to wipe it off with the pad of her thumb. It caused the blonde to blush and duck her head before she smiled and laughed off any embarrassment she felt.

"Thanks. Sorry, sauce on the face definitely isn't romantic," Emma said once she finished chewing. "I should have known not to order anything with sauce."

Regina chuckled, "I thought it was a little romantic. Almost like Lady and the Tramp, without the noodles or the kiss."

"Or it's like cleaning Henry up when he does the same thing."

"I assure you Henry has better dining etiquette," Regina teased.

"Great. Even the kid's more of an adult than I am," Emma smiled.

"That's not true. Although…" Regina trailed off and pretended to disappear in thought for effect.

Emma rolled her eyes with a small smirk and Regina grinned. After a moment, Emma transitioned into another topic.

"Speaking of Henry, we still haven't figured out what we're we gonna tell him about us. How soon should we be talking to him about this?"

"Well, sooner is probably better. We don't want him to be upset with us about us lying to him and if we're doing this, if we're really going to venture into this relationship, that's what we'll be doing the longer it takes to tell him about us."

"I agree, but I think… I want to tell him after our date. I want to have you all to myself for at least one more night."

Emma smiled with twinkling eyes and reached across the table. She touched Regina's hand, Regina turned her hand over, and Emma took it in hers. Regina smiled and squeezed it in response.

"Yes. For now, let's enjoy tonight," Regina said.

"That might just be the easiest thing I've ever done."

Though they'd known each other for over a year, they both learned a lot more about each other that night. Regina had guessed how Emma was as a teenager based on things she'd picked up on in Neverland, but that night she heard stories about it straight from the blonde herself. It started with how Emma was a thief and often robbed convenience stores, to which Regina made the comment, "Not including food for survival, what else have you stolen aside from my heart?"

It got a laugh out of Emma, who replied with, "Who knew Regina Mills was smooth? Besides, out of the two of us I thought only you stole hearts."

Regina chuckled and after a moment, once the laughter between them subsided, the conversation changed to more serious matters that Regina brought up very carefully.

"You never wanted to kill her, did you? Even if you thought you could have done it if it was necessary, you couldn't have killed Ingrid," Regina slowly, hesitantly asked with a soft expression meant to ease them into the subject.

Emma glanced down at her lap for a moment then lifted her head and replied, "Even before I could remember her, I didn't have it in me to kill her. Plus, I felt like part of her was right. It was like I could _feel _like I really had known her. And now I can understand why she took my memories. She pulled me in front of a car expecting me to use magic to save us. I was about fifteen and only thought magic existed in fantasy books."

Emma took a moment to collect herself before she shared with Regina a bit about her younger years. From watching every other girl in the group home get adopted while she remained unchosen with fading hope to finally having found someone that wanted her just to realize the woman was crazy enough to pull her in front of traffic and talk about magic like it was real, and then to what she had in Storybrooke with her parents and with Henry.

"So…it's taken me a while," Emma started to finish her side of the conversation, "but I'm here. I'm with you. And I wouldn't trade any part of my messed up family for anything."

Regina chuckled and finally let go of Emma's hand, which she held throughout all of Emma's admissions.

"Well, I've survived a controlling, manipulative, somewhat abusive mother and the Dark One and a forced marriage and a near lifetime of unhappiness, but here I am. I'm with you. And I wouldn't change a thing if that meant losing what I have now."

They smiled at each other and spent a little more time eating for the next few minutes since they'd hardly touched their plates once conversation had started to flow between them. Once most of their food had been devoured, they locked gazes and the dimmed lights flickered on and off a few times. They never once looked away from each other and the little flower shaped lamp in the center of their table never lost power even when everyone else's had.

"Something wrong," Regina asked with a knowing smirk.

"Not if we get the check and go back to your place," Emma smirked back with eyes that twinkled with mirth and desire.

Without breaking eye contact, Regina stopped the next waiter to pass their table and the lights stopped flickering. He wasn't their server, but Regina persuaded him within seconds to get to the waitress that had tended to them all evening to bring their bill in a hurry. He scurried off and Emma's foot slowly started to scale one of Regina's legs under the table while they waited.

"If you're trying to get my attention, dear, it's working just fine," Regina purred.

"Oh, I know," Emma said in a huskier tone than usual. "The _lights_ were for your attention. What I'm doing now is just passing the time until I can show you the surprise I have for you."

"Oh?"

Emma's bootless foot reached Regina's knee and she nudged the other woman's legs apart, her toes pressed against the lower part of Regina's inner thigh near her knee.

Regina gasped and subtly slid her hand under the table then grabbed at Emma's foot. Her palm covered the top of Emma's foot and the other woman instantly stopped her ascent beneath Regina's dress.

Emma's smirk curled into a teasing, slightly evil, grin and Regina rubbed Emma's foot a few times before she patted it. Then their waitress appeared with the bill and Regina pulled her hand up to grab the black booklet that held the receipt while Emma removed her foot from Regina's leg.

Regina thanked the waitress as she pulled out her card and slipped it in its designated spot inside the booklet. She handed it over just as Emma slipped forward in her chair across the table and seemingly stomped her way back into her boot. Regina stifled a laugh a moment before the waitress ran off with the bill.

Emma nervously smiled at her with pinkish cheeks while she straightened up in her seat, boot apparently successfully on her foot.

"Charming," Regina teased.

"Yours," Emma more confidently, happily smiled.

"God, I really am dating the daughter of my former enemy," Regina leaned her head into her hand and shook her head with a quiet chuckle.

"Hey, at least you lucked out."

"How so," Regina asked as she pulled away from her hand and looked over at Emma.

"We all know I'm the best Charming out of my family," she joked. "Imagine if you'd actually fallen for my _mom_."

Regina let out a hearty laugh, like a laugh she rarely used but enjoyed all the same, and Emma lit up at how light and carefree Regina appeared in that moment.

"You're right. You're very right," Regina said when she settled down. "I'm glad I fell for you and not one of the two idiots."

A couple seconds passed before the waitress returned with Regina's card and left them to their evening after a few pleasantries were exchanged. Regina wasted no time as she gathered her coat and purse and stood. Emma followed her lead and a few minutes later they were at Emma's car.

Emma, still the perfect gentlewoman, held the door open once again for Regina and smiled as the brunette slipped past her and into the Bug. The drive to the mansion was quiet and Emma managed to keep her hands away from dangerous, tempting, areas of the former mayor's body.

Not far from Regina's, Emma reached over and rested a hand on the other woman's knee. She rubbed her hand over the brunette's knee and thigh, up and down and up, and gave the woman's knee a little squeeze. She then killed the engine and smiled at Regina.

"Your surprise isn't seducing me in your car again, is it," Regina asked.

"No," Emma lightly laughed. "We're going to have sex in _your_ car before we have sex in my precious love bug again."

Regina looked beyond shocked and even pulled away from Emma in her seat.

Emma's smile brightened.

"That's not the surprise," she added. "But I'm curious. Why do you suddenly look like sex in your car is the absolute worst thing we could ever do?"

"Because my car is much nicer than yours and I can't have sex where I used to drive _our son_ to school and to the store and the doctor and where he's spilled countless juice boxes and whistled through his missing baby teeth and laughed at things he shouldn't have heard me say but they still sounded silly to him."

"Who said we'd do it in the backseat? We didn't do it in _my _backseat. Plus, I can see where you're coming from, but you kind of lost that argument when you had sex while Henry was in the house multiple times. And if I remember right, Henry only found out you were seeing Robin because before he got his memories back, he saw you making out with the guy outside of a room at Granny's."

"That room was where we had our meeting about Zelena," Regina quickly defended. "And you know Henry. He's always around and sticking his nose in things he shouldn't because more likely than not it gets him into trouble."

Emma laughed.

"Calm down. You've known me long enough to know when I'm teasing you."

"That doesn't mean I've found it funny yet," Regina pointedly said with a raised brow.

Emma closed her mouth and nodded.

"You got me there. Now, am I the only one excited about the surprise?"

"Why are you excited," Regina asked as Emma got out of the car. "You know what the surprise is."

"True," Emma replied as she opened Regina's door and held out her hand from the other woman. "But I don't know what your reaction's gonna be and it's for you so I want to know if I did something right."

Regina furrowed her brow.

"Emma, you do a lot of things right."

"I know," Emma sighed. "Poor choice of words. I really just want to get a positive reaction out of you. That's all."

"I'm sure whatever you have planned is adequate," Regina jokingly said with a grin.

"Adequate. Pff. I'll show you," Emma muttered as they walked up the pathway to the front door.

Regina pulled out her keys and Emma grabbed her by the wrist to keep her from unlocking it. She turned to Emma, confused, but then Emma kissed her and she relaxed. She dropped her hand with the keys to her side and pressed her other hand to Emma's waist. The two of them stepped closer as they kissed until there was no space left between them and Emma slowly and gently backed Regina against the doorframe.

Regina sighed into the kiss and closed her fist around the back of Emma's shirt.

Emma smiled as she pulled away, their lips still extremely close, then quietly said, "Henry's with my parents for the night."

"That's the surprise?"

"No. The surprise is upstairs," Emma said as she grabbed the keys from the brunette, unlocked the front door, and pulled Regina inside.

Regina closed the door behind them and followed Emma upstairs.

"Is the surprise what you're going to do to me," Regina asked as they reached the top of the stairs.

"No…but what would you like me to do to you," Emma grinned before they stopped outside of Regina's closed bedroom door.

Regina's lips curled into a lustful smirk and her eyes flicked between both of Emma's eyes then down to her lips.

"Show me the surprise, Emma," she said after a moment.

Emma flashed a lopsided smile at her and reached back behind herself. Emma grabbed the doorknob, but hesitated as she leaned back on the door.

"Okay. I made you a promise that night in the car so this is me keeping that promise. Or at least _trying_. This might not turn out as gracefully as I planned."

Regina wanted to tell Emma however the surprise turned out, it was enough for her that Emma even had anything planned just for her. Instead, she kept quiet and waited until Emma was ready to open the door.

A few more seconds passed and finally, with a nervous smile, Emma opened the door and walked backward into Regina's bedroom.

Regina followed her and once she was on the other side of the door she noticed nothing special that would surprise her.

Emma took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Okay. Here it goes," Emma said more to herself than the other woman.

Regina watched and realized just then what Emma was going to do. She'd been with Emma in enough confrontations with the villain-of-the-week over the last couple of months to know Emma's "about to use magic" face. Her lips slowly started to form a smile.

"Concentrate on what you want and why you want it," Regina spoke in a low, soothing voice as she calmly instructed Emma through whatever she was trying to do.

Emma opened her eyes and stared straight at Regina. After a moment, Emma's chest rose with a deep breath among other reasons than just her use of magic and when she released it, a faint lilac light flashed and candles appeared around the room. Red candles covered every surface against the walls except the bed and with a flick of Emma's wrist, she lit every last one of them at almost the exact time.

Regina gasped and her lips curled into a proud smile while love and wonder soon filled her eyes.

"I promised the next time would involve your bed and candles," Emma said with the cutest kind of puppy-Swan smile. "So? What do you think?"

"Emma," she breathed out as she looked from the candles to the woman who'd conjured them.

There were no words that could express how she truly felt. Not only had Emma made her promise and kept it, but Regina got to witness Emma use her magic with the control she'd gained without any prompting. And all of it was just for her.

Emma started to fidget and Regina suddenly realized she hadn't said anything for a while. She beamed at Emma and closed the distance between them in a few long, quick strides forward. She immediately pressed her lips to Emma's and wrapped he arms around the blonde's waist. She pulled Emma flat against her and backed Emma toward the bed as she kissed the younger woman with everything she had, everything she felt.

Emma softly moaned and arched her back just as they reached the edge of the bed. Regina felt their chests brush and sighed into the next kiss. Emma slid her hands down Regina's back and Regina nipped Emma's bottom lip when the blonde squeezed her ass.

"You first," Regina insisted between kisses as she grabbed the hem of Emma's shirt and then peeled it off the other woman.

Emma whimpered the instant the cold air hit her exposed skin then fell onto the bed when Regina crashed their lips together in another heated kiss.

Regina broke their kiss on the way down onto the bed to avoid gnashing teeth, but quickly resumed her current oral fixation as soon as Emma laid out beneath her. Her blonde hair fanned out a little around her head, but it was mostly trapped between her body and the sheets. Regina landed straddling one of Emma's legs and the blonde used that to her advantage.

Emma hooked a leg over Regina's hip and slipped the other high between Regina's thighs. She used the leg around Regina's hip to pull the woman closer and in the process created a pleasurable friction between Regina's panty-covered sex and her own jean-covered thigh. Regina responded with a hand on Emma's breast and moan as she squeezed it through the other woman's bra.

Emma arched her back again and then reached behind herself to unhook her bra. Before she could that, however, Regina pulled one of her hands away and Emma took the hint and willingly pulled the other hand away a second later.

Regina pinned the hand she had a grasp on to the bed and she started to kiss her way down Emma's neck.

Emma moaned and clawed at the other woman's dress while Regina kissed, licked, and sucked every sensitive spot along Emma's neck, ear and jawline.

Emma clenched her fist beneath Regina's hold on her wrist and Regina rewarded the self-restraint to not fight against her grasp with a nip, lick, and suck to Emma's most sensitive spot on her neck. She knew it was sure to leave a hickey and Emma seemed to be more than okay with it as she let out a long moan. Regina moaned in response while she continued to leave her mark and Emma's legs twitched inward, which gave Regina's lower body a brief but telling squeeze.

Regina released Emma's wrist, ran her hand down Emma's stomach and unbuttoned the woman's jeans with ease. She leaned in and kissed Emma's lips then slid her hand underneath the blonde with both hands.

Emma instinctively arched her back and Regina unhooked her bra. The blonde grabbed Regina's dress zipper and slowly pulled it down just as Regina started to slide one of Emma's bra straps over her shoulder and down her arm.

Things moved as slowly and sensually as they had the first time in the cramped yellow car and though they'd been here, done this, once before, they were just as stripped down and connected as the previous time. Everything still felt new and they might have learned each other's bodies quickly, but they were still in a stage of exploration. It was more on an emotional level than a physical one, but there was still much to be discovered between the two of them. Both seemed ready and willing, if not also eager, to do that.

Regina kissed Emma's shoulder, the swell of her breast, and when she pulled down the cup of Emma's bra she kissed the skin just above a rosy pink nipple.

Emma gasped and lightly scratched her nails up Regina's back toward the brunette's bra. She bit her bottom lip and gulped before she released a deep exhale like a content sigh, relieved, satisfied. Emma turned her head and looked down at Regina while the kissing continued.

Regina slid the other bra strap down Emma's arm just as she had for the first strap. As she removed the second strap from the blonde's shoulder, she slipped the bra further down Emma's body to expose more of her breasts.

"Regina," Emma whispered.

She flicked her eyes open and stared up into blue-green eyes dark enough to faintly look a hundred percent green. Once their eyes were locked, Regina maintained eye contact while she sucked one of Emma's nipples into her mouth.

Emma closed her eyes and sighed while she pushed her chest further into Regina's mouth. She extended her neck and pushed her head further back into the mattress with a hand clutched around the sheets and the other hand on Regina's side just below the band of her bra between heated skin and the other woman's unzipped but not yet removed dress. The blonde curled her fingers against Regina's side for a moment before she used them to expertly unhook Regina's bra.

Regina ran the flat of her tongue over Emma's nipple then kissed it before she pulled back and sat up. She tugged her dress down her body, bra included, and slowly revealed herself to Emma. Though she'd already shown her body to Emma before, the blonde watched with rapt attention and happily smiled when Regina pulled the dress down to her hips. She tore the bra away from herself and dropped it on the floor before she leaned in with a smile of her own and pressed their lips together.

Regina rolled her hips forward and grinded against Emma's thigh, dress half off, panties still on, bra abandoned. She watched Emma as the blonde placed her hands on her hips above where her dress had bunched up then ran her hands up to cup her bare breasts. Along the way, Emma pressed the heels of her palms ever so slightly into her torso. Regina leaned in again and pressed her hand flat against Emma's sternum seconds before she kissed the other woman languidly and with all she had yet again.

Every part of her went into their kiss. Her past, her present, her hopes for the future all poured out of her and fell into the physical connection. It seeped into their emotional bond as well and only a few moments later, tongues danced and dueled, bodies rocked together in sync with the other, and breathy moans and hums escaped them. They touched each other on every level accessible once again and it felt intoxicating. Of all the power and control she'd achieved over the years, nothing compared to the power, the _strength_, she felt with Emma.

Slowly, surely and with ease, the rest of their clothes were thrown around the room without a care as to where they landed. Both completely bare once again, Regina shifted her hand from Emma's sternum down to the woman's uncovered sex. She hesitated like Emma had the previous time and locked onto Emma's gaze before they went any further.

Their eyes conveyed feelings neither of them were ready to voice and sometimes even struggled to just accept within the confines of their own minds. Physically things moved slowly, but otherwise their relationship had progressed at a rapid rate. But most things moved quickly in their lives so it only make sense that as long as it took for them to come together that once they finally had, everything just happened all at once. A part of Regina wanted it to progress less hastily, but behind closed doors—despite their intense feelings—nothing was rushed. They took their time like time was all they had. Then the sun would rise and a new day would start and suddenly there would be a new concern on everyone's minds and magic and mayhem and one more villain after the next would pull them away from where they wanted to be most: each other's arms.

And suddenly Regina realized that though Emma and Daniel and her relationships with each of them were more different than alike, there was one startling similarity that made something perfectly clear. She felt everything when she was with either of them and they each brought out the best in her in their own ways. Losing Daniel had been painful, but maybe it was only a noble sacrifice made to ensure she would find Emma and Henry. Because as much as Regina once thought Daniel was her happy ending, she knew without a doubt that he was one of the highlights on her long, trying journey to her ultimate happy ending with a shared son and the woman that reminded her a little bit every day what it was like to be blissfully in love and full of warmth and light.

With one look in that moment of hesitation—not because Regina didn't want to continue but to be sure Emma still did—so much was understood. No words were spoken and none were needed, just as things had gone the first time between them. Just as things would probably always be between them.

They smiled at each other, one of many throughout their entire date night, and a moment later Regina moved her hand lower and brushed her fingers over Emma's clit. She lightly circled it twice before she dipped her middle finger inside the other woman. She wasted no time before she added a second finger and every touch, every movement, caused Emma to squirm and pull their bodies closer.

Emma grabbed at Regina, her hips, her back, her legs, her ass, and she asked for more, pleaded for it.

Regina gave and gave and gave. Fingers, lips, tongue, teeth. Regina felt every twitch, spasm, and flutter. Emma's body wrapped around her wherever it could and the other woman clung to her throughout the tiny pleasures she felt with the swipe of fingertips, the pump and curl of fingers, the flick of a tongue, and the press of kiss after kiss.

Emma's walls started to tense around Regina's fingers and the brunette's free hand slid up Emma's arm before she took one of Emma's hands in hers. She threaded their fingers together and let out an embarrassingly loud and needy moan when she felt magic flow between their joined hands. Just as Emma's walls tightened so did the woman's grip on Regina's hand. The magic between them surged and their hands felt like they were on fire. The connection burned and stung, but it wasn't all that unpleasant. It actually wasn't unpleasant at all. It was strong and hot and it brought them both so close to the edge of orgasm, Emma more so than Regina but the older woman could just as easily have reached climax from that magical touch alone.

Then Emma whimpered through her release and Regina marveled in the blonde's change in expression from knitted brows to enjoying new bliss.

Regina hummed as she brought her lips to Emma's stomach and trailed wet kisses down to her hips. She slowed the pace of her pumping fingers, but kept up stimulation while she teased the space between Emma's clit and navel with her tongue to draw out her release.

"Regina," Emma panted out with desire and desperation. "Oh my god. Oh…"

Regina grinned and nipped the bare skin ever so slightly above Emma's sex.

Emma gasped and her hips shot into the air.

Regina's chin grazed Emma's clit and Emma sighed as her body swayed toward Regina for more. Regina kissed her way back up toward Emma's waist and in response, Emma settled back onto the bed.

Regina sped up her pace and kissed her way down, once again, toward Emma's sex. She slowly started to slide her tongue from Emma's pelvic bone to her clit, but avoided the bundle of nerves during her teasing. Emma didn't protest, but she instinctively, uncontrollably, jerked her hips forward and the tip of Regina's tongue briefly flicked over the woman's sensitive clit as a result of the sudden movement.

Emma cried out and Regina's fingers were coated further with evidence of the woman's second orgasm. Regina coaxed Emma down from the height of her pleasure with chaste kisses to the younger woman's stomach, between her breasts, and ended on her lips.

Emma's chest rose and fell at a fast, heavy rate while she tried to catch her breath.

"Incredible," Emma panted out and smiled. She chuckled when she caught Regina's gaze and Regina's lips formed a smile closer in appearance to a smug smirk.

"Just imagine what I can do when I finally, _completely _go down on you," Regina purred before she kissed Emma again and removed her fingers from the woman.

"That'll only happen after I go down on you first," Emma grinned.

They were through with their petty competitions and had been for a while. Neverland changed a lot of things. Still, there were times when little competitions were fun. Neither kept score, but it was attractive to tease and play with each other. That was what it was. Teasing and playing and fun. No score to be kept and no offense for poor performance or bad behavior. Because there were no rules and the performances were never poor and all that mattered anyway was how they felt about each other.

"By all means," Regina said as she moved to straddle Emma's hips, her knees on either side of the woman under her.

Emma sat up and crashed her mouth against Regina's in a fiery kiss before she laid back down and guided Regina up her body. It only took a moment before Regina straddled Emma's head instead of her hips and when that happened, Emma directed her attention to Regina's inner thighs. She kissed her way up and down her smooth, irresistible skin and swirled her tongue over different parts of her thighs.

Kisses became licks became little love bites. She hummed and moaned and sighed against Regina's thighs before, during, and after she sucked on various spots closer and farther and closer again to where Regina needed her most. It took very little time before Regina started to quiver and shake with anticipation. Her muscles tensed and relaxed, tensed and relaxed, every other kiss and every other bite and every other lick.

Regina gasped and hummed. She leaned forward and clawed at the headboard in front of her while she bowed her back and lowered herself further into Emma's mouth. She moaned when Emma kissed up and up and _up_! Emma's hot breath teased her clit a second before Emma brushed her lips against it in a not-quite-kiss, the touch feather-light. It was all too tempting and not enough. Emma understood her perfectly. She immediately gave more, but still didn't rush a single moment.

The blonde ran the flat of her tongue over Regina's clit once, twice, and then she sucked the glistening bundle of nerves into her mouth. She tickled it with the speedy flicks of the tip of her tongue before she released Regina's clit and slid the flat of her tongue from her hood to her entrance.

"Yes," Regina hissed, and Emma pushed her tongue as far inside of Regina as physically possible. "Emma!"

Regina started to cant her hips and she sighed with satisfaction when she felt Emma grip and squeeze her hips to keep her from moving too erratically.

Emma replaced her tongue with two fingers and licked her way back to Regina's clit. She flicked and curled her tongue over and against the former Mayor's clit, applied pressure like pressing a button just to relieve that pressure an instant later.

Regina clenched around Emma's fingers and then held her breath. They both knew what was coming, or rather _who_. She contorted herself without any self-control left in her, her back curved and her hips thrust forward while she leaned more of weight to her right side than her left. She squeezed and clawed at the headboard until her knuckles turned white. Then she exhaled upon her release and whimpered as she felt the effects of her pleasure pool between her thighs.

She relaxed her arms and legs, though her thighs twitched through a few little aftershocks while Emma lapped up her wetness. She struggled to regulate her breathing for a short time, but it calmed just as Emma gave her sex one final lick. At that point, she carelessly fell onto one side of Emma on the bed, her body perpendicular to Emma's. One of her legs folded and pressed against Emma's side while her other leg draped over the blonde's waist.

"Next time, that won't end as quickly."

"Who said it was over," Emma teased as she started to run her fingertips up and down the calf draped over her waist, her eyes on Regina's face.

"As insatiable as you seem to be," Regina smirked, "I don't have it in me for another round tonight. Let's just enjoy the candlelight and cuddling?"

"Cuddling," Emma asked with piqued interest. "There's gonna be cuddling?"

Emma cheekily smiled as she pushed herself onto one of her elbows then repositioned herself head to head with Regina.

"Mm, lots of cuddling," Regina replied with a low, raspy voice.

Regina threw an arm over Emma's waist and rested her leg, previously draped over Emma's waist where her arm now was, over Emma's hips. She used her body to pull Emma closer and snuggled her face into the crook of Emma's neck.

Emma smiled and kissed the top of Regina's head before she wrapped an arm around the brunette and tightened their embrace ever so slightly, ever so gently. They fell asleep horizontally on the bed and yet again in each other's arms. It lasted for an hour before they woke up cold and then hazily curled up together under the covers with their heads on pillows and their feet at the end of the bed. They remained that way for hours and hours more, not a single thing or person to disturb them, and for the first time in months for both of them they slept in.

* * *

When the morning came that day, it was time for the truth. Their date night thoroughly enjoyed, Emma and Regina were slow to wake up, but when they did they remembered that day would be the day they told Henry about their relationship.

"Five more minutes?" Emma placed a hand on Regina's forearm and tried to get her to stay in bed just a little bit longer.

Regina looked over at the bedside clock and noticed the time.

"It's already kind of late," Regina replied. "We should get going before Henry gets—"

The front door opened and a familiar voice loudly called out, "I'm home!"

"It's like he already _knows_," Emma groaned and took her time pulling herself up to sit in the bed. She rubbed her hands over her face and tried to rid herself of the sleep that still clouded her vision while Regina was up and moving at a graceful and efficient speed.

Regina gathered their clothes that lay strewn about the room. Emma's bra next to Regina's dress, Regina's panties next to Emma's shirt, Emma's jeans and underwear next to Regina's bra. She tossed Emma her clothes article by article as she picked them up off the floor.

Emma barely registered the clothes that flew at her. She remained naked in bed with her bare chest on display beneath strands of her messy blonde hair, but everything below her waist was covered by Regina's bed sheets and comforter.

"Hurry up and get dressed. He'll probably barge in here soon and we didn't lock the door last night," Regina told her.

"Then lock it now," Emma grumbled and whined while she continued to do nothing to redress herself.

Regina sighed and flicked her wrist. The door's lock clicked in place and Regina slipped into a fresh pair of panties from her dresser drawer.

"How come you get walk around in clean underwear," Emma groused.

"Because _I _live here. I have the comfort of wearing clean clothes, under garments and all."

"Can't you lend me some stuff?"

Regina rolled her eyes.

"Just focus on looking decent in front of our son and _then _we'll worry about what exactly you wear."

Emma sighed and flopped onto her back. She groaned again and remained on her back in bed.

"Emma," Regina scolded as she threw on a shirt, her bra still in her hands. "Get _up_."

Regina walked over to the bed and smacked one of Emma's breasts.

Emma hissed and let out an "ahh" of pain and protest as she curled into herself and turned her back to Regina.

"Shit. I thought we weren't getting to the kinky stuff yet. I wasn't even ready for that."

"Mom?" Henry was already on the second floor. It wouldn't be long before he was at her door and she'd have to come up with an excuse as to why the door was locked and she couldn't quite yet open it for him.

"It's time to get up, dear. We have to explain ourselves to our son and I'd rather not look like we just had sex when we do."

"You have a good point and I want to look presentable, but you should have waited until any time except for right now for us to tell him. I'm still so tired." Emma pouted and kept completely still under the covers.

Regina grabbed the sheets and yanked them off of the blonde, to which she received a loud groan in response.

"Regina," she whined again.

"Now I understand why it was always so hard to get Henry up for school," Regina muttered.

There was a knock on the bedroom door followed by, "Mom? You in there?"

"Yes, Henry. I'll be right out. I slept in this morning so I'm just getting a late start."

"Oh, uh, okay," Henry replied through the door.

She wasn't sure if he waited just outside the door, but Regina hoped he didn't hear what she did next in an attempt to get the other woman to move. She slapped Emma's ass, hard. The loud smack echoed throughout the quiet room and Emma immediately jerked away from Regina's hand.

"Fuck!"

Regina was sure Henry heard Emma swear. Her voice was loud enough to carry all the way to the foyer she was so shocked by the slap that she refused to hold back her with her reaction. Regina only wanted Henry not to think they were still doing what they did last night. She really didn't want to scar him with thoughts of what his mothers got up to when they were alone together.

"Henry's here. He's probably back in his room or he's right outside this door. Are you going to get up or do I have to hit you again?"

"Damn, Regina. You're sexy like this. Remind me to ask for a little punishment during sex next time."

"If you don't get up now the next time will be a _long time _from now."

Regina put on a pair of pants and finger-combed through her hair while she watched her words give Emma incentive to do as she was told.

Emma sat up again and slowly started to dress herself, her movements stunted by the daze her continuous sleepiness caused.

After several minutes, both women were dressed. Emma hadn't bothered to do anything with her hair even though it looked like a bird's nest so Regina closed the space between them and did it herself. She raked her fingers through Emma's hair, the blonde's eyes level with her torso while she sat on the edge of the bed as Regina stood in front of her. She did her best and smoothed out some of the tangles.

Emma lifted the hem of Regina's shirt then kissed her stomach.

"What are you doing," Regina asked as she continued to run her fingers through Emma's hair.

"Giving you a good morning kiss. We kind of skipped the morning afterglow routine. Again."

"Yes, well, we haven't been afforded that luxury just yet. Someday, though."

Emma hummed and gave her another kiss. That time it was open-mouthed and wet against another spot on her stomach before she moved to her right and slipped her tongue into Regina's naval.

"That's not a good morning kiss," Regina noted. "That's a kiss that leads to more kisses in other places."

Emma grinned against Regina's skin then kissed a trail toward the waistband of Regina's pants.

"Ah, ah, ah," Regina admonished and hooked two fingers under Emma's chin. She tilted the younger woman's chin up and looked down into green eyes. "Don't even think about it."

Emma chuckled. "What can I say? I can't get enough of your…forbidden fruit."

Regina rolled her eyes and almost scoffed at how easily Emma made fun of her. It had been something she had shared with the blonde between their first date and the prior night. She'd referred to the poisoned apple she retrieved with Jefferson's help as her forbidden fruit and Emma hadn't been able to stop laughing when she heard about it.

Emma pecked a chaste kiss on Regina's stomach then pulled down her shirt and only rested her hands on her hips. She kept her mouth away from the brunette while Regina finished with her hair.

"Time to face our son," Regina said as she pulled her hands from Emma's hair and stepped away from the woman.

Emma stood up and took Regina's hand in hers. Regina laced their fingers and both of them took a deep breath and moved toward the bedroom door.

Telling Henry was the first step on a long road that led to their story's happy ending. They still had Snow and Charming to tell and the rest of their lives to make what they had work, but both were confident they would pull through anything and everything as long as they had each other. As they made their way to Henry to share the news he hopefully agreed was _good _news, it was nerve-wracking but it was freeing. For so long they each let so many things weigh them down. Now, as they prepared themselves to admit to others how they felt about each other, it felt like a fresh start. It felt like a beginning, and both were excited to see just where it would take them.


End file.
